And enough poolish left over to make a couple of loaves of ciabatta bread.

Trying out some ideas from these two books.

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads and is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend.You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page. For more information, see the welcome post.

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week we will post a new Top Ten list that one of our bloggers here at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers.

Monday, April 29, 2013

I had a great week. I got a new book in the mail almost every day and I finished a book almost every day. What more can one ask of life?!

What Arrived Last Week

The World is a Carpet:Four Seasons in an Afghan Village

Loki's Wolves

Sugar by Jewell Parker Rhodes

A Curious Man: The Strange & Brilliant Life ofRobert "Believe It or Not!" Ripley

Give and Take
by Adam Grant

What I Finished Last Week

This is Not a Book

by Keri Smith

Show Me a Story!

Why Picture Books Matter

Reading Magic by Mem Fox

It All Changed in an Instant:

More Six-Word Memoirs

Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage:

The Titanic, Her Passengers and Their World

Unusual Creatures:

A Mostly Accurate Account of Some of Earth's Strangest Animals

The Magic Puddingby Norman Lindsay

What I Reviewed This Week

I'm working on reviewing a huge stack of fifteen books.

What are you reading today?!

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is where we share what we read this past week, what we hope to read this week…. and anything in between! This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!

I love being a part of this and I hope you do too! As part of this weekly meme Book Journey loves to encourage you all to go and visit the others participating in this meme. Book Journey offers a weekly contest for those who visit 10 or more of the Monday Meme participants and leave a comment telling BJ how many you visited.

Saturday, April 27, 2013

End of event meme

A Readathon tradition!

Which hour was most daunting for you? Hour 16, 'cause that's when I fell asleep!

Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? Graphic novels. Picture books. Browsable books (like Guinness Book of World Records). Poetry books. Audiobooks. A play. Short stories.

Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? It was perfect.

What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? Everything.

How many books did you read? Two.

What were the names of the books you read? Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage. More Six-Word Memoirs.

Which book did you enjoy most? I liked them both.

Which did you enjoy least? NA.

If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? NA.

How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? 99.99% likely. Co-host was very, very fun.

1) How are you doing? Sleepy? Are your eyes tired? Oddly, I feel good.
2) What have you finished reading? Two books.
3) What is your favorite read so far? Loved book about the rich people on the Titanic.
4) What about your favorite snacks? Almonds. Pizza is coming soon.
5) Have you found any new blogs through the readathon? Lots!

HOUR 8

I didn't get much reading done this hour,

as I had to get busy for Hours 9-10-11-12,

when I will be co-hosting! Woo hoo!

HOUR 7

Here's my response to the Best and Worst Cover Challenge.

I'd have to call this Worst, Worst-er, and Most Worst Cover:

Sorry, but as much as I love the text of WIT, I hate the covers. All of them.

1. Book title and author: Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage: The Titanic's First-Class Passengers and Their World by Hugh Brewster

2. The menu, food, beverage, you can even go as far as background music, decorations: How about recreating the last dinner on the Titanic? Lobster Thermidor, Quail's Eggs in Aspic with Caviar, and Poached Salmon with Dilled Mousseline Sauce and Cucumber. A nautical theme, perhaps, with life rafts for seating? And we could dress to the hilt, with furs and jewels and, of course, life vests.

3. You will receive an additional entry if you create a drink to go with your book event and give it a name: Apparently, the most popular drinks while on board were a Champagne Cocktail, a Manhattan, or a Martini. Or we might choose to pass out little vials of whiskey; one passenger's survival was credited to the enormous amount of whiskey he drank after boarding a lifeboat. Water might be a cruel choice.

Off to read a little more of my Titanic book! Hope you are all having a great time.

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today? An itty-bitty town in Texas.
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? Gilded Lives,Fatal Voyage: The Titanic's First-Class Passengers and Their World
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? Almonds
4) Tell us a little something about yourself! Primary school librarian. Blogger. Reader.
5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? I like to visit blogs. And do a little reading.

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

I read books for all kinds of reasons. Sometimes I've been bullied into reading a book. That's what happened to me with Harry Potter. I read book one and I thought that was enough, but sixth graders at my school library just couldn't believe I hadn't read the entire series. Finally I caved. Happily, it turns out.

Sometimes I'm forced to read a book given to me by a relative or a friend. No easy way out of that. And nine times out of ten, it's a very bad experience. But there is the rare time that a relative urges you to read a YA book that turns out to be a fantastic read.

Then there are the times I pick up a book at a reading conference from an author who is sitting all alone with an enormous pile of advanced reader copies of his first children's book. I bring the book back to the hotel and spontaneously decide to give this book, with a sad cover, a try. And I find myself hooked from page one.

Assigned readings are always fraught with danger. How often do these turn out to be beloved books? Not too often, in my experience. But not so with the one book I was assigned to read in college for my Educational Philosophy class.

Westerns have never had any appeal for me. It was with great reluctance that I began this book. And now it's one of my favorite reads ever.

I tend to stay away from bestsellers. But if there is one category that other people are always trying to push me to read it is bestsellers. So I was very happy to learn that bestsellers sometimes becomes bestsellers because bestseller authors know how to tell a good tale.

As much as I typically dislike the overhyped, I also tend to steer away from the underhyped, those little books that I suspect never even made the publisher back the author's advance. But there have been many unexpectedly delightful books among this category.

Classic is a category that scares many people off. But I've been happily surprised by more books I expected to hate in this category than any other.

What are books that you never expected to like?

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week we will post a new Top Ten list that one of our bloggers here at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers.

Monday, April 22, 2013

It's Monday and it's time once again to share what we read and acquired and are reading.

What I Acquired Last WeekSome weeks are reading weeks.Some weeks are acquiring weeks.I think you will agree with me that last week was an acquiring week.Here's what I acquired at IRA:

...and 49 more books. Yes, that's 92 books.

So far.

I still have one more day at the conference.

How about you? What are you reading today?

Any suggestions about which of these books I should read first?

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is where we share what we read this past week, what we hope to read this week…. and anything in between! This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from! I love being a part of this and I hope you do too! As part of this weekly meme Book Journey loves to encourage you all to go and visit the others participating in this meme. Book Journey offers a weekly contest for those who visit 10 or more of the Monday Meme participants and leave a comment telling BJ how many you visited.